Gowns Draw Frowns

Orlando player says sometimes dress is just a dress

Alexa Deluzio didn't mind trading her basketball jersey for a dress in a team photo for Florida State's new women's basketball fan Web site.

Apparently, others did.

The image of Florida State basketball players wearing sleeveless, satin evening gowns leaning against limousines on a promotional Web site, seminolehoops.com, has drawn heated criticism from some media outlets. Two writers questioned if there was a subtle message of homophobia and if the photos of basketball players in dresses is too sexual, prompting a response from former National Organization of Women president Patricia Ireland, who supported Florida State.

But Deluzio, a redshirt freshman from Orlando who played for First Academy, said the team's message has been misinterpreted.

"Obviously, people are going to take it how they see it and they have a right to their opinion," she said. "But the message we were trying to send across was we were so much more than just basketball players. We like to dress up, we don't wear basketball shorts and T-shirts everywhere."

Florida State administrators said the women's basketball staff acted independently in creating the fan Web site. Communications director Rob Wilson did not indicate whether or not the school supported the move or if Athletic Director Randy Spetman knew about the Web site's creation prior to its November launch.

"Our basketball program worked independently with a private public relations firm to create their Web site," Wilson said through an e-mailed statement. "Our head coach and our program conduct themselves with the utmost integrity and any negative interpretation by a viewer is unfortunate and unintended."

Deluzio said her coach Sue Semrau approached players with the idea of dressing up for the new Web site, which was designed to give fans an inside look at players and potentially be used as a recruiting tool.

"It was kind of like prom dresses," she said. "It wasn't like anyone said no."

Semrau hired the Tallahassee-based firm Ron Sachs Communications to design the Web site, which two female employees designed. The communications firm set up a photo shoot where players posed in preselected dresses and their basketball jerseys, according to Chief Operating Officer Michelle Ubben.

Players chose their own accessories in a photo shoot that lasted from approximately 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., Deluzio said.

"We had a vision of putting together a Web site that we could direct fans, high school coaches and players to that would set us apart," Semrau said. "All the other Web sites were the same and all in the athletic mode, which is a good thing and we're excited about having that coverage. But we wanted to take it a step farther. We talked about 3D. You get to step out of that picture and make it real life."

But exactly what "real life" means raised questions for Seattle Post-Intelligencer women's basketball writer Jayda Evans. She wrote in her women's hoops blog that Florida State had blatantly sexualized basketball and was "concerned the sexualized look continues a different, damaging constant in women's hoops -- homophobia," referencing the case of former Penn State coach Rene Portland.

Portland was fined $10,000 by the university after a 2006 internal review concluded she unfairly dismissed a lesbian athlete and created a homophobic environment.

AOL Fanhouse columnist Michelle Smith said Semrau is selling her program short by approving images of players in dresses in her Dec. 10 column entitled "FSU: All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go."

The Seminoles are currently 9-0 and will travel to play UCF on Wednesday in Orlando.

"Setting up a glamour shoot, featuring it front and center and juxtaposing it with athletic bodies in motion is like hitting opposite ends of the spectrum without acknowledging that there's probably something equally beautiful in the middle," Smith wrote. "There are any number of ways to portray these athletes in a flattering, attractive way that doesn't sexualize them."

"We didn't fight against dresses, but did fight against the fallacy that said if you wore a dress, you couldn't be a competitor. To now suggest the opposite -- that if you play sports you shouldn't wear a dress -- is the same kind of backward thinking that in the past attempted to block women from full equality," Ireland said.

To Deluzio, a dress is just another part of her wardrobe.

"We were excited to dress up and look nice," she said. "It shows a different side of our personalities."